


Devil

by Wallwalker



Category: Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: Community: fic_on_demand, Crossover, Drama, Gen, Post-Canon, Prison
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-21
Updated: 2009-11-21
Packaged: 2017-10-03 13:00:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wallwalker/pseuds/Wallwalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kain keeps going back to see him, and he doesn't know why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Devil

**Author's Note:**

> Written for shanaqui @ LJ for the [Fic on Demand](http://community.livejournal.com/fic_on_demand) community at LiveJournal.   
> I still haven't decided whether or not I'd want to continue this. I like the idea but am not sure where to go with it.

Kain doesn't know why he keeps coming back to the tower that haunts his nightmare, that monster formed of crystal and polished steel. He has a life in Baron again, a family of sorts and a new purpose. There is no reason for him to run from it, nothing that he wishes to leave behind.

And yet... he keeps going back to the place called Zot, that ruined tower that extends above the clouds, flying as quickly as the Red Wing airship will take him. He keeps making his way through the dreadful place, knowing that the place was badly damaged, that it might collapse and end his life at any time.

His destination is always the highest point left of the tower, a place half-exposed to the clear sky. There, where Rosa had once been bound, there is a man - no, Kain corrects himself, examining him again. He's not yet old enough to be called that, although his broad shoulders and muscled arms and legs are clear signs that he'll be impressive enough if he lives to see manhood. But if ever there was a youth who could be described as _callow,_ this blond youth is that man - physically strong and handsome, yes, but he always has a scowl on his face and anger in his eyes, and he always sneers at Kain when he enters. He is an intimidating figure, despite the iron chains and the massive metal sphere that is precariously perched above him, waiting to crush him.

Kain is still not entirely sure if he really sees this boy, this puzzle - he is not sure if this is some bizarre hallucination, a lingering trace of madness that Golbez had left in his soul. But he doesn't argue with his perceptions. He has no doubt that the boy would take offense if he did.

The young man sees Kain almost at once, this time - sometimes he sleeps through Kain's visits. His laughter is bitter and cold. "Are you here to taunt me again?" he asks, his voice harsh and metallic with disuse. "Forget it. I know what you are now. I figured it out."

"Have you?" Kain asks, softly. He wonders, not for the first time, if this man - if he is, in fact, real - might be utterly mad.

"You're one of her demons, aren't you? She sent me here as my punishment, and you're here to make sure I don't go crazy too fast so that I don't appreciate it. Smart. Real smart. But I figured it out." He shifted his arms slightly, as much as he could have moved. The chains were pulled too tight to rattle, even slightly. "If you were a real person, and this wasn't some kind of Hell, you would've gotten me out of these fucking chains by now."

Kain frowns. "I would have do so long before now, if only I could touch them," he said. That is the simple truth. The first time he'd come back to the tower, the boy had been unconscious in his prison. Kain remembered trying to touch his chains, to somehow set him free, but his fingers had passed right though them - first through the chains, and then through the boy's arm. "Alas, I fear that I cannot."

"Sure. Right." The blond youth turns his head away. Above him, the steel ball that almost crushed lovely Rosa hangs over his head, ready to fall without even a moment's warning. "Figures, doesn't it? I'm the one person in the whole damn world who was brave enough to fight the system, and I end up here with a big fucking ball over my head and just some dragon devil to talk to."

Kain's frown deepens. This handsome young man bothers Kain somehow, and not only because of his strange clothing, his trousers and blue vest and tattered white coat. He somehow has the feeling that this man would understand his own experiences far too well. Staring into those mad green eyes reminds him too much of how he must have looked to Cecil, when he was possessed... because this youth _is_ possessed, although not by any strange outside force, but by something within him. Something with a life of its own... in a way it repulses Kain. In another, stronger way, it attracts him. He wishes that he could release him, so that he could turn his attention to solving some of the riddles surrounding him.... "I do not understand. What system do you refer to?"

The man laughs again, and then sneers at Kain. "I was a pawn. Garden was making all of us into pawns, trained to fight and then sold out to the highest bidder. But you know what? I fought the bastards back. I knew damn well that I was meant for better things, and by God and Hyne I fought back." He shook his head. "But it didn't make a damn bit of difference. Let the wrong person down... wave of her hand put me here. No idea how long she's planning to keep me here. Maybe forever, if she doesn't get tired and let me die first. That lying witch...."

"I am sorry. I truly would help you escape if I could," Kain repeats, and he means it. He remembers Rosa, struggling there against her bonds, and he hates to see this man in the same place. He wants to get him out, another step on the way to his redemption... but then he looks into those eyes again and wonders if that's really all that there is to it.

"No shit." The man spits at Kain, then turns his head away. "Forget it," he says, just barely above a whisper. "Just get the hell out of here, okay? You want to help me, stop coming by. I don't like being reminded of what I don't have."

Kain nods and turns away, ready to begin the walk back to his airship. He wishes to return to Baron with all haste; Cecil and Rosa will both be waiting for him, and while they will not ask him why he leaves, their faces will ask the question for them. And he will neither acknowledge it nor attempt a response, for in truth he does not know himself.

Of course, even as he walks away, he knows that despite the lad's anger, he is going to return sooner or later. Some strange force keeps drawing him here, and he cannot put a name. He is starting to consider that the man is right about his role in his punishment, and wonders at what sort of force could bind him there, insubstantial and yet unable to escape. Perhaps the boy is nothing more than a lost ghost.

As Kain finally boards his airship again, he idly wonders why he's never asked for the lad's name. Then, with a sigh, he realizes that in the end his name truly doesn't matter.


End file.
